Glitch halts SES-8 launch

A last-minute technical problem halted the launch of SES-8 by a SpaceX Falcon-9 rocket late on November 25th (scheduled for 22.37 GMT). The launch was halted just 4 minutes prior to launch, and cannot now happen much before November 28th. Bad weather at Cape Canaveral might delay the launch even further.

However, despite this last-minute problem, SES’ CTO Martin Halliwell praised SpaceX and its highly competitive launch pricing structure, saying its rivals (France’s Arianespace and Russia’s Proton) were “shaking in their shoes”, while SpaceX’s founder, billionaire Elon Musk said: “Our prices are the most competitive of any in the world. We will force other rocket companies to either develop new technology that’s a lot better or they have to exit the launch market.”